As students, we know all too well what it feels like to procrastinate. We would do anything to avoid doing that one assignment. We would even prefer cleaning our rooms just to escape studying. The discipline needed for online school only adds to the temptation of scrolling through social media all day instead of working. So, are we really that lazy or is there a catch?

Emotions

At its core, procrastination is not about productivity, it is about emotions. Procrastinating certainly does not mean that you are a lazy person or that you are bad at time management. You are simply coping with many negative emotions such as - boredom, anxiety, insecurity, frustration, resentment, and self-doubt. Dr. Fuschia Sirois, professor of psychology at the University of Sheffield, says that procrastination is irrational. We know that not completing a task will make us feel bad and yet, we still do it. “People engage in this irrational cycle of chronic procrastination because of an inability to manage negative moods around a task.” It is not so much about the task, instead it is about the feelings that arise. 

So why do we procrastinate when we know it is not good for us?

Simply put, procrastination means that you are more focussed on managing the negative emotions than you are on completing the task at hand. Therefore, we sometimes lay in bed and do nothing instead of working on that looming deadline. You choose the bed over the assignment because it gives you momentary relief. You have been rewarded for procrastinating. When we are rewarded for something, we tend to do it again. That is why procrastination easily becomes a habit, one that is hard to get rid of. 

Your future self

As humans, we feel the instinct to provide for our present selves. The future ‘you’ seems more like a stranger. The consequences of not completing a task feel like they are for another person to deal with, while we all know that it is us who will have to face the aftermath. While the brain can see the value completing the task has for your future self, the present self is the one that has to take action. The problem here is that the present self is not so good at prioritizing that value. It often chooses Netflix over studying.

What can I do?

Something you can try is being more self-forgiving. You have to forgive yourself for the times that you’ve procrastinated. Researchers found that students who were able to forgive themselves for procrastinating when studying for an exam ended up procrastinating less when studying for the next exam. The self-forgiveness supported productivity because the students could let go of the burden of their past acts. 

The next action

A lot of assignments or tests can feel like there is an overwhelming amount of information. It seems like there is no motivation at all to start on these kinds of projects. Something you can do is to try and focus only on the “next action”. This is advice from Dr. Pychyl, who explains this method as “a layer of self-deception.” He suggested that you could start thinking about the next step as a mere possibility. “What’s the next action I’d take on this if I were going to do it, even though I’m not?” You could, for instance, start by opening a word file, or looking through the assignment brief. Don’t wait to be in the mood to do a certain task. “Motivation follows action. Get started, and you’ll find your motivation follows,” Dr Pychyl said.

There are also more practical ways of reducing your procrastination habits. It is, after all, much easier to change your circumstances than ourselves. One way is to place obstacles between yourself and your temptations. For instance, if you know you check your phone a lot during studying, you can download an app which blocks certain apps for a while. Or you can choose to put your phone in a different room. You get a certain relief from procrastinating, it is harming to yourself, but it is still a sense of relief. Once you make this relief more difficult to obtain, it becomes less satisfying.

By understanding why, you procrastinate it hopefully eliminates some feelings of guilt that come with procrastinating. So, go easy on yourself and start on that assignment!